9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.
11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.
He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
Mark 1:9-13
Dearly Beloved,
Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
In these succinct five verses, Mark rapidly covers all the key events of Christ’s life prior to His earthly ministry.
Coming from Nazareth in Galilee, our Lord Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan.
Given that we are 2000 years away from this event, with little or no understanding of the pertinent worldview of that time, Mark’s deliberate mention of Nazareth and Jordan is meant to provide us with the glaring absence of any reference to what was considered the holiest place of Israel - Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is the site of the temple and is thus associated with the ‘presence’ of God.
The contrast between the obscurity of Nazareth and the historical and religious significance of Jerusalem profoundly reveals the disparity between how we must be saved and how we think we should be saved.
Are we saved by what we do, where we are, or by who we know?
Would religion save us? Or would a relationship be our saving grace?
And so, it is from Nazareth of Galilee that Jesus comes, and it will be to Galilee that Christ would return after His resurrection (Mark 16:7).
Jerusalem and the temple, on the other hand, would be found to be constantly hostile towards Jesus, and ultimately, become the epicenter of human evil and unqualified injustice that would lead to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Holiness is not about what or where we make it to be.
Holiness is where God is.
Jerusalem may have been the Holy City, but Jesus is the Holy One of God.
Jesus is God in Human form.
When God said to Moses, “Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5), it was because of His presence that made the burning bush sacred ground.
When you seek the Holiness of God, do we seek a holy place to be in, or the Holy One to be with?
What kind of church are we?
Do we endeavor to build a holy sanctuary accompanied with all the cachets of religiosity?
Or is our sole endeavor about building a holy relationship with the Holy God?
When we gather for worship, is Christ the subject and object of our adoration?
Or are we impeded by choice of music, or the sermon delivery, or the never-ending prayers?
Are we the generation of worshipers who will break the contagion of consumerism that has invaded our Christian existence that requires absolute and complete focus and commitment to God alone?
Not only did the Christ come from obscurity that was Nazareth, His foremost destination was the wilderness of Jordan – where was found the penitent multitudes who had left their cities to go out to John to be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins.
No.
Christ did not make the ‘holy’ city – Jerusalem - part of his earliest itinerary.
Instead, He came to be baptized by John in the Jordan.
For the Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10)
Where there are lost looking to be found, we know that Jesus is in their midst.
Are we a church that is ‘Jordan’ to the multitudes?
As a church, do we facilitate that holy ground in an unholy world, where the lost may be found?
Have we chosen to be Jerusalem, instead of Jordan?
Are we a church passionate about God’s redemptive work through Christ? Are we a church who exists to preach a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins?
Now, understand this clearly.
Christ’s baptism was not for the forgiveness of His sins – for He had none.
Christ’s baptism was to establish His identity as the Son of God – sent to be the perfect lamb of God, as substitutionary atonement for the sins of the world.
Christ’s baptism and wilderness experience was meant to establish His entrace into human history through sacred and transcendent identification with Israel as marked by every milestone of her faith journey with God (the Flood, the Crossing of the Red Sea, 40 years in the wilderness etc)
During Christ’s baptism, we witness through Mark’s lenses the Revelation of the Trinity.
This divine Revelation informs us simultaneously of the distinctiveness of each person of the Godhead, and the inseparable mutuality of the Trinity.
Where Christ is, so is the Father, and the Spirit.
We live in the fullest assurance of that God is fully present to us.
Through His Holy Spirit, Christ and our Heavenly Father is present to us today.
The Apostle Paul understands this reality well.
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. (emphasis mine)
10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.
And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8:9-11, 8:14-17)
What an absolutely beautiful theology of the Trinity!
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ.
We have eternal life today, because of our faith in Christ.
We may be dying, but we believe that the Holy Spirit gives us life and the assurance of eternal life because the Righteousness of Christ imputed upon us through our faith in Him.
We live because Christ lives!
We live because the Holy Spirit lives in us, and made us His Holy temple. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
Those who are led by the Holy Spirit are children of God – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
And that is why we blessedly share in Christ’s sufferings, in order that we may also share in His glory!
Does the Spirit of God live in you?
If you are not sure, make sure today.
Invite the Spirit of Christ to enter into your life. Confess your sins, repent and believe in the forgiveness of God through Christ Jesus your Lord and Saviour.
Open your life to Jesus today, and experience the full life that God has destined for you even before the dawn of time.
The Holy Spirit draws you closer and deeper with the Father and the Son.
The Holy Spirit assures you that through Him, you have relationship with God the Father and the Son.
Be filled with the Spirit of God!
You know that you need this sacred assurance.
You know that you need this divine relationship.
You desire to live victoriously over challenges of this world, and the schemes of the evil one.
You need the Spirit of God in your life!
Paul writes in Romans 8:37, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Do you believe that?
You ought to, because Christ is the ultimate Conqueror.
Becoming flesh and making His dwelling amongst us, God understands every human emotion and experience, hardships and temptations.
With barely time to celebrate His baptism, we discover that the Holy Spirit who descended on our Lord Jesus like a dove – in divine encapsulation of grace, gentleness and hope – would be the same Holy Spirit who would lead the Messiah into the wilderness to face Satan in his element.
But unlike Adam and his descendents, our Lord Jesus – the last Adam – decisively overcame each and every of Satan’s deception and subversion, soundly defeating Him.
In doing so, Jesus demonstrated again, that He is indeed the Messiah, the Son of God, sent to rescue, redeem and restore all Creation.
Perhaps, the fact that Christ is your Saviour may not immediately resolve your struggle, uncertainty, or pain; but consider this, Christ understands.
Christ understands your hunger, your oppressions, your temptations, your grief, your struggles, your uncertainties, your pain and every emotion known to man.
He is God who became flesh in order to reveal to all humanity that He understands, and He saves.
Salvation comes only from God, and Christ enters human history to do just that.
Christ came to save us from death - the penalty of our sins; as well as to save us from the power that sin holds over our lives.
Hebrews 2:14-17 tell us, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants.
17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.”
There is no religion in the world that alludes, in the least, to a god who is holy and perfect in everyway, and at the same time, demonstrates compassion, faithfulness and mercy to the struggles and pain that we face each day of our lives.
Only the God of the Bible.
What kind of God is this?
He is the God who loved the world so much, that “He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17)
God loves you. Period.
What’s there NOT to believe?
What reason could anyone possibly have NOT to believe?
What reason could you possibly have NOT to believe, and to be filled with the Spirit of Christ?
Satan tempted Christ – God in human flesh - and lost.
For Mark, that was that.
From the temptation account in Matthew’s gospel, we find 4 key truths that will deepen our lives in Christ.
1.The chief strategy of satan is to cause us to forget that our greatest joy and power in life - is when we draw close to GOD.
It was the Holy Spirit that led Christ into the wilderness, not satan.
As was established in His baptism, the Holy Spirit was with Christ, and therefore, so was the Father.
The devil didn't stand a chance from the beginning because he was dealing with GOD – he just didn't know it yet; until after the second temptation.
Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 5:57)
Thus if we remain in Christ, the devil will not stand a chance against us as well.
But that would not stop him from trying.
And every time he does, he would know better, if we choose constantly and consistently to remain in Christ.
Never forget.
God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
Apart from Christ, we do not stand a chance.
2.Stones cannot be eaten; don’t even consider it.
What are stones?
Everything that detracts you from living in God’s Righteousness.
The woman who is not your wife.
The man who is not your husband.
The anxiety that weighs on your heart.
The stubborn pride that leaves you thinking that you are on your own.
The absence of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Have you consumed stones because you have allowed the devil to tempt you into transforming them into bread?
Have you consumed the unacceptable because you have allowed yourself to be deceived?
Beg for forgiveness from God, and ask that He would lift the veil from your eyes to see the stones for what they really are.
3.God’s faithfulness doesn’t ever need to be tested.
If you disagree, you simply have not given yourself a chance to personally know the God of the Bible.
4.Other than God, nothing and no one is worth our worship.
Existentially, we are limited by the object of our worship – what we are truly passionate and pre-occupied about.
God created the Heavens and the earth. He is infinite.
His love for the world – His love for you - is infinitely intense and immense.
Why would you want to knowingly handicap or so severely limit yourself?
19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.
Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. (Deuteronomy 13:19-20)
Choose life.
Choose to believe in Christ. (John 3:16)
Choose to worship the One, True, Living God.
Selah.
In attempting to tempt Christ, satan the ‘supplanter’ was himself supplanted, and revealed his weakness –
1.He has no power to turn the stones to bread;
2.He has no power to push Christ off the ledge;
3.He has no power over Christ. Period.
The question for you here is this; does the devil have power over you?
Why it that?
Again, the real question becomes; does the Spirit of Christ live in you?
Christ is Victorious! He is our victory!
After vanquishing the devil, Christ revealed to us that He is LORD of the wilderness - as He has always been.
That the angels attended to Him should not conjure in our minds images of a weary Christ slumped in the arms of the heavenly beings, but that of the Conquering Christ who would suffer and die resolutely for the sins of the world in ultimately accomplishing victory over death itself.
Such is the all-surpassing victory of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!
Is Christ’s victory, your victory?
From Conception to Crucifixion, from Ascension to Enthronement, the Holy Spirit was Christ’s constant and inseparable companion.
To be filled with the Holy Spirit, is to be filled with the Spirit of Christ Himself.
Therefore, to lack the Holy Spirit, is to lack Christ.
And to lack Christ, is to deny yourself of His life-giving Spirit and His victory over sin and death.
The mark of Christ in our lives is the indwelling of the Spirit of God.
Are you filled with the Spirit of God today?
John the Baptist proclaimed, “I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:8)
Come before God this moment, and ask that Christ baptizes you – as He has promised - with the Holy Spirit.
Shalom.
Let us pray.
Our Father in Heaven,
Hallowed be Your Name.
Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done; on earth, as it is in heaven.
Thank you O Lord for Your divine revelation that You are the Triune God.
I believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
I believe that You are divinely distinct, mutual and inseparable.
That because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in me, I am victorious through Christ Jesus my Lord!
Lord Jesus, thank you for rescuing me from the penalty and power of sin.
Thank you for being our merciful and faithful high priest in service to God.
Thank you for making atonement for the sins of the people.
Forgive my sins, as I have forgiven those who have sinned against me.
I acknowledge that unforgiveness and bitterness have led me to sin greatly against You.
I acknowledge that my sin and wickedness stems from my unbelief.
Lord Jesus, help my unbelief! Increase my faith in You, Lord!
Fill me with Your Holy Spirit – and cause me to bear the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control
Open the eyes of my heart to see the world for what it really is, to see stones what what they really are.
Where I have knowingly or unintentionally been deceived by the evil one, forgive me O God! Forgive my transgressions and iniquities.
I acknowledge this day that You and only You are truly worthy of my worship, and my life.
Come, Holy Spirit, fall afresh on me.
Fill me with Your power.
Satisfy my needs.
Only You can make me whole.
Give me strength to make me grow in Christ from this moment until I meet You face to face.
I choose life.
I choose to love the Lord my God.
I choose to listen to Your voice.
I choose to hold fast to You.
We thank you and pray all these in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.
10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.
11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.
He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
Mark 1:9-13
Dearly Beloved,
Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
In these succinct five verses, Mark rapidly covers all the key events of Christ’s life prior to His earthly ministry.
Coming from Nazareth in Galilee, our Lord Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan.
Given that we are 2000 years away from this event, with little or no understanding of the pertinent worldview of that time, Mark’s deliberate mention of Nazareth and Jordan is meant to provide us with the glaring absence of any reference to what was considered the holiest place of Israel - Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is the site of the temple and is thus associated with the ‘presence’ of God.
The contrast between the obscurity of Nazareth and the historical and religious significance of Jerusalem profoundly reveals the disparity between how we must be saved and how we think we should be saved.
Are we saved by what we do, where we are, or by who we know?
Would religion save us? Or would a relationship be our saving grace?
And so, it is from Nazareth of Galilee that Jesus comes, and it will be to Galilee that Christ would return after His resurrection (Mark 16:7).
Jerusalem and the temple, on the other hand, would be found to be constantly hostile towards Jesus, and ultimately, become the epicenter of human evil and unqualified injustice that would lead to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Holiness is not about what or where we make it to be.
Holiness is where God is.
Jerusalem may have been the Holy City, but Jesus is the Holy One of God.
Jesus is God in Human form.
When God said to Moses, “Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5), it was because of His presence that made the burning bush sacred ground.
When you seek the Holiness of God, do we seek a holy place to be in, or the Holy One to be with?
What kind of church are we?
Do we endeavor to build a holy sanctuary accompanied with all the cachets of religiosity?
Or is our sole endeavor about building a holy relationship with the Holy God?
When we gather for worship, is Christ the subject and object of our adoration?
Or are we impeded by choice of music, or the sermon delivery, or the never-ending prayers?
Are we the generation of worshipers who will break the contagion of consumerism that has invaded our Christian existence that requires absolute and complete focus and commitment to God alone?
Not only did the Christ come from obscurity that was Nazareth, His foremost destination was the wilderness of Jordan – where was found the penitent multitudes who had left their cities to go out to John to be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins.
No.
Christ did not make the ‘holy’ city – Jerusalem - part of his earliest itinerary.
Instead, He came to be baptized by John in the Jordan.
For the Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10)
Where there are lost looking to be found, we know that Jesus is in their midst.
Are we a church that is ‘Jordan’ to the multitudes?
As a church, do we facilitate that holy ground in an unholy world, where the lost may be found?
Have we chosen to be Jerusalem, instead of Jordan?
Are we a church passionate about God’s redemptive work through Christ? Are we a church who exists to preach a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins?
Now, understand this clearly.
Christ’s baptism was not for the forgiveness of His sins – for He had none.
Christ’s baptism was to establish His identity as the Son of God – sent to be the perfect lamb of God, as substitutionary atonement for the sins of the world.
Christ’s baptism and wilderness experience was meant to establish His entrace into human history through sacred and transcendent identification with Israel as marked by every milestone of her faith journey with God (the Flood, the Crossing of the Red Sea, 40 years in the wilderness etc)
During Christ’s baptism, we witness through Mark’s lenses the Revelation of the Trinity.
This divine Revelation informs us simultaneously of the distinctiveness of each person of the Godhead, and the inseparable mutuality of the Trinity.
Where Christ is, so is the Father, and the Spirit.
We live in the fullest assurance of that God is fully present to us.
Through His Holy Spirit, Christ and our Heavenly Father is present to us today.
The Apostle Paul understands this reality well.
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. (emphasis mine)
10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.
And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8:9-11, 8:14-17)
What an absolutely beautiful theology of the Trinity!
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ.
We have eternal life today, because of our faith in Christ.
We may be dying, but we believe that the Holy Spirit gives us life and the assurance of eternal life because the Righteousness of Christ imputed upon us through our faith in Him.
We live because Christ lives!
We live because the Holy Spirit lives in us, and made us His Holy temple. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
Those who are led by the Holy Spirit are children of God – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
And that is why we blessedly share in Christ’s sufferings, in order that we may also share in His glory!
Does the Spirit of God live in you?
If you are not sure, make sure today.
Invite the Spirit of Christ to enter into your life. Confess your sins, repent and believe in the forgiveness of God through Christ Jesus your Lord and Saviour.
Open your life to Jesus today, and experience the full life that God has destined for you even before the dawn of time.
The Holy Spirit draws you closer and deeper with the Father and the Son.
The Holy Spirit assures you that through Him, you have relationship with God the Father and the Son.
Be filled with the Spirit of God!
You know that you need this sacred assurance.
You know that you need this divine relationship.
You desire to live victoriously over challenges of this world, and the schemes of the evil one.
You need the Spirit of God in your life!
Paul writes in Romans 8:37, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Do you believe that?
You ought to, because Christ is the ultimate Conqueror.
Becoming flesh and making His dwelling amongst us, God understands every human emotion and experience, hardships and temptations.
With barely time to celebrate His baptism, we discover that the Holy Spirit who descended on our Lord Jesus like a dove – in divine encapsulation of grace, gentleness and hope – would be the same Holy Spirit who would lead the Messiah into the wilderness to face Satan in his element.
But unlike Adam and his descendents, our Lord Jesus – the last Adam – decisively overcame each and every of Satan’s deception and subversion, soundly defeating Him.
In doing so, Jesus demonstrated again, that He is indeed the Messiah, the Son of God, sent to rescue, redeem and restore all Creation.
Perhaps, the fact that Christ is your Saviour may not immediately resolve your struggle, uncertainty, or pain; but consider this, Christ understands.
Christ understands your hunger, your oppressions, your temptations, your grief, your struggles, your uncertainties, your pain and every emotion known to man.
He is God who became flesh in order to reveal to all humanity that He understands, and He saves.
Salvation comes only from God, and Christ enters human history to do just that.
Christ came to save us from death - the penalty of our sins; as well as to save us from the power that sin holds over our lives.
Hebrews 2:14-17 tell us, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants.
17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.”
There is no religion in the world that alludes, in the least, to a god who is holy and perfect in everyway, and at the same time, demonstrates compassion, faithfulness and mercy to the struggles and pain that we face each day of our lives.
Only the God of the Bible.
What kind of God is this?
He is the God who loved the world so much, that “He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17)
God loves you. Period.
What’s there NOT to believe?
What reason could anyone possibly have NOT to believe?
What reason could you possibly have NOT to believe, and to be filled with the Spirit of Christ?
Satan tempted Christ – God in human flesh - and lost.
For Mark, that was that.
From the temptation account in Matthew’s gospel, we find 4 key truths that will deepen our lives in Christ.
1.The chief strategy of satan is to cause us to forget that our greatest joy and power in life - is when we draw close to GOD.
It was the Holy Spirit that led Christ into the wilderness, not satan.
As was established in His baptism, the Holy Spirit was with Christ, and therefore, so was the Father.
The devil didn't stand a chance from the beginning because he was dealing with GOD – he just didn't know it yet; until after the second temptation.
Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 5:57)
Thus if we remain in Christ, the devil will not stand a chance against us as well.
But that would not stop him from trying.
And every time he does, he would know better, if we choose constantly and consistently to remain in Christ.
Never forget.
God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
Apart from Christ, we do not stand a chance.
2.Stones cannot be eaten; don’t even consider it.
What are stones?
Everything that detracts you from living in God’s Righteousness.
The woman who is not your wife.
The man who is not your husband.
The anxiety that weighs on your heart.
The stubborn pride that leaves you thinking that you are on your own.
The absence of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Have you consumed stones because you have allowed the devil to tempt you into transforming them into bread?
Have you consumed the unacceptable because you have allowed yourself to be deceived?
Beg for forgiveness from God, and ask that He would lift the veil from your eyes to see the stones for what they really are.
3.God’s faithfulness doesn’t ever need to be tested.
If you disagree, you simply have not given yourself a chance to personally know the God of the Bible.
4.Other than God, nothing and no one is worth our worship.
Existentially, we are limited by the object of our worship – what we are truly passionate and pre-occupied about.
God created the Heavens and the earth. He is infinite.
His love for the world – His love for you - is infinitely intense and immense.
Why would you want to knowingly handicap or so severely limit yourself?
19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.
Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. (Deuteronomy 13:19-20)
Choose life.
Choose to believe in Christ. (John 3:16)
Choose to worship the One, True, Living God.
Selah.
In attempting to tempt Christ, satan the ‘supplanter’ was himself supplanted, and revealed his weakness –
1.He has no power to turn the stones to bread;
2.He has no power to push Christ off the ledge;
3.He has no power over Christ. Period.
The question for you here is this; does the devil have power over you?
Why it that?
Again, the real question becomes; does the Spirit of Christ live in you?
Christ is Victorious! He is our victory!
After vanquishing the devil, Christ revealed to us that He is LORD of the wilderness - as He has always been.
That the angels attended to Him should not conjure in our minds images of a weary Christ slumped in the arms of the heavenly beings, but that of the Conquering Christ who would suffer and die resolutely for the sins of the world in ultimately accomplishing victory over death itself.
Such is the all-surpassing victory of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!
Is Christ’s victory, your victory?
From Conception to Crucifixion, from Ascension to Enthronement, the Holy Spirit was Christ’s constant and inseparable companion.
To be filled with the Holy Spirit, is to be filled with the Spirit of Christ Himself.
Therefore, to lack the Holy Spirit, is to lack Christ.
And to lack Christ, is to deny yourself of His life-giving Spirit and His victory over sin and death.
The mark of Christ in our lives is the indwelling of the Spirit of God.
Are you filled with the Spirit of God today?
John the Baptist proclaimed, “I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:8)
Come before God this moment, and ask that Christ baptizes you – as He has promised - with the Holy Spirit.
Shalom.
Let us pray.
Our Father in Heaven,
Hallowed be Your Name.
Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done; on earth, as it is in heaven.
Thank you O Lord for Your divine revelation that You are the Triune God.
I believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
I believe that You are divinely distinct, mutual and inseparable.
That because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in me, I am victorious through Christ Jesus my Lord!
Lord Jesus, thank you for rescuing me from the penalty and power of sin.
Thank you for being our merciful and faithful high priest in service to God.
Thank you for making atonement for the sins of the people.
Forgive my sins, as I have forgiven those who have sinned against me.
I acknowledge that unforgiveness and bitterness have led me to sin greatly against You.
I acknowledge that my sin and wickedness stems from my unbelief.
Lord Jesus, help my unbelief! Increase my faith in You, Lord!
Fill me with Your Holy Spirit – and cause me to bear the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control
Open the eyes of my heart to see the world for what it really is, to see stones what what they really are.
Where I have knowingly or unintentionally been deceived by the evil one, forgive me O God! Forgive my transgressions and iniquities.
I acknowledge this day that You and only You are truly worthy of my worship, and my life.
Come, Holy Spirit, fall afresh on me.
Fill me with Your power.
Satisfy my needs.
Only You can make me whole.
Give me strength to make me grow in Christ from this moment until I meet You face to face.
I choose life.
I choose to love the Lord my God.
I choose to listen to Your voice.
I choose to hold fast to You.
We thank you and pray all these in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.